November 28th

The next morning I awoke with the whole bed to myself. It was only 7 am but I ventured down to Leo's office in search of my mate.

"Hey," I said softly.

He had been sat leant back on the swivel chair staring into space until he saw me and a smile crept onto his lips.

"Come here," he said gently patting his lap.

I snuggled into him, absorbing his warmth.

"How long have you been up?" I asked.

"3 hours," he replied.

"We only went to bed 6 hours ago. Are you not exhausted?"

"I've got too much to think about and too many decisions to make for sleep."

"Correction, we've got too much to think about," I said. "So come on. Tell me what you're thinking so far."

He let out a huge sigh.

"You were right. Whatever we decide to do, Lia has to be happy," he said, "And we can't keep him in the prison forever or he'll become immune to the wolfsbane. They keep upping the dosage but somehow he still managed to impregnate my sister. So I have to two options: release him or kill him. Which if Lia has to be happy, there's only really one option."

"So you're gonna let him out?" I asked.

"I originally planned to at some point but now that things have...changed, that day may have to be brought forward," he explained, "But. I still don't trust him to take Lia off the territory yet so I'm going to make them both stay. It feels like the perfect compromise. Lia gets to be with her mate and keep the baby. But I can keep an eye on him so there's no threat to her or the pack."

I smiled, "Looks like I do know something about running a pack then."

Two hours later we arrived at the Loren house to pick up Antonio, Rosa and Lia. Another ten minutes or so later and we were at the doors of the prison.

Rosa held Lia's hand tightly as Antonio walked in front of them with a stony expression very similar to Leo's.

"I smell Alphas," a voice sung as we reached the door to Haden's cell.

The prison guard put the key in the lock before slowly pushing open the steel door.

"Take off the handcuffs," Leo ordered.

The guard, who could have been 18 at most, nodded and sheepishly approached Haden.copy right hot novel pub